Hiring Manager’s Guide to Recruiting!

You Have To Live With the Results, Not HR

Recruiting is not an HR job. If you’re a hiring manager, recruiting is your responsibility, not HRs. Yes, human resources can, and should, help, but you need to own your decision.

Finding the Best Talent

To hire the right candidate you need the right job description. If your job description isn’t right you’ll only waste time and you’ll hire the wrong person. Take the time to write descriptions of the position thoughtfully so it’s easily understood by recruiters and candidates. Writing an accurate position description saves time and helps to keep frustration levels low.

No matter what kind of labor market you’re dealing with, you’ll always get more resumes than you need or want. Because it can be overwhelming to screen all those online resumes to find the best candidates it’s best to simply start at the beginning and learn to delegate some of this task to HR and others on your team. Establish ahead of time the guidelines and criteria you will use to evaluate the candidates. Next, learn to trust your instincts. If something jumps out at you as wrong, trust that there’s something wrong with the applicant. Remember, ultimately the new hire is your responsibility.

When the screening of the candidates is done, invite the top two or three candidates in for an interview. Think ahead of time what questions you’ll ask and what answers you’re looking for.

In most companies, the most valuable commodity and essential element of success, rests with the small pool of talented people on your team.

Too many hiring managers write job descriptions based on skills they’re looking for rather than looking for talent. A skill is a learned competency. And while almost anyone can be taught a particular skill, talent is much more rare and valuable. Be sure you Hire Talent, Not Skills.

Don’t let your own insecurities get in the way of hiring the best people just because someone possesses your positive qualities. You’ll have a stronger, more productive team and others will recognize your talent because they know A’s hire A’s and B’s hire C’s.

Other Hiring Considerations

As a manager, you have to make many subjective decisions and seldom will you have all the information you want before making a decision. Simply use your best judgement and make the best decision you can. One decision a hiring manger has to make that can’t be delegated is whether you should Hire Overqualified Workers. Some candidates will tell you they plan to leave too soon, others that they are hard to manage, and still others that they are too expensive. Ultimately, you need to make your decision based on the quality of your team and what its particular needs are.

Like overqualified workers, hiring managers have a similar decision to make about hiring Older Workers. You may need to weigh their outdated technology skills with what else they bring the team, such as stability. Ask yourself if they are too slow or does their experience in other companies, or industries, give them insights that can help your team innovate. Again, it’s a decision only you as the hiring manager can make. This can’t be delegated to HR or anyone else on the team.

Related Recruiting Factors

Candidates may not ask you about your Company Culture, but they should. If not, you still need to consider if the potential new hire will fit in before making an offer. Candidates don’t have to be carbon copies of everyone else (and sometimes fresh blood can shake things up for the better) but you need to consider the potential impact ahead of time if someone is truly a bad fit.

Another factor many potential employees care about is Training Opportunities. They want to know if they will be able to improve their skills and advance in their profession. Also, it’s important to identify beforehand what training someone requires so you can bring them up to speed at the same time you’re letting them know what training will be available to them.

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